Cohort marriage and divorce in five Western countries.

Abstract

An analysis of cohort trends in family formation and dissolution in five Western countries during the twentieth century is presented. The countries concerned are the United States, England and Wales, Belgium, Sweden, and Switzerland. "To obtain the indicators of family formation and dissolution used in this study, male and female cohort marital status life tables were constructed in each of the five countries for single year cohorts born between the years 1888 and 1945." Consideration is also given to the impact of changes in mortality. Data are from official sources. This is a revised version of a paper originally presented at the 1983 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America (see Population Index, Vol. 49, No. 3, Fall 1983, pp. 384-5).